Archive for August, 2012
29 August 2012
Abu Dhabi School Shirts in Festau Village
We arrived at the tiny mountain village of Festau last week to be greeted by 60 children in school shirts with the “Pearl Primary School” logo on the pocket. The Pearl Primary School is a British international school my kids went to in Abu Dhabi – 9,000 kilometres from East Timor. Two years ago, with the help of many mothers from Pearl Primary School, I brought over 100 shirts to Festau School where they had no uniforms. Very bizarre for Zoe, my 12 year old daughter, to see the children in her old school shirts!
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project: Lequeracabu'u East Timor
27 August 2012
Amazing Youth Group goes to Macalaco School
Imagine 130 school children in a remote village in the mountains of East Timor having a music and dance based youth rights group from Dili arrive to perform for them. We were able to make that happen this week by co-operating with MAC an incredible organisation of young people from Dili. 15 of the MAC group travelled to remote Macalaco – doing the last stage with all their instruments (including drum kit, synthesiser and guitars) in a builder’s open backed truck. They performed songs for the children which dealt with things like children’s rights, nutrition and hygeine and interspersed the songs with short teaching sessions and a puppet show. There was also dancing and some capoeira (Brazilian based martial art combing dance and music) – everyone had a fabulous time.
The children (and adults) were transfixed. We hope to be able to take MAC to Macalaco again very soon.
     
project: Macalaco East Timor
25 August 2012
Lospalos school is open!
Lospalos school was opened with great success this week. After a bone shaking 7 hour drive to Lospalos we visited the school the night before the ceremony. There were people working everywhere. Workmen were putting the last coat of paint on the school floor (carefully kept till the very last minute so it would look fresh), others were stenciling the Spend it Well name on the official plaque stand and others were finishing off the huge shade structure erected just for the day. Some women were pinning white table cloths to the tables and folding serviettes for the feast (in a decorative manner that would have put any function centre in Australia to shame) and many other women were cooking over outdoor fires – and were still doing so when we went past late that night. Our 12 year old daughter Zoe came with us and quickly assumed rockstar status among the young local girls!
The next morning the school children lined the road into the school and dancers escorted the official party. The President had to cancel at the last minute, but Kirsty Sword Gusmao is every bit as popular and delighted the crowds with her presence and speech. The ceremony was wonderful – rather different to others we’ve seen as Lospalos has it’s own distinct culture. The new building we have built is fabulous and the two old renovated buildings like like new – a fabulous transformation from the wrecks they were before.
Apparently we all featured on the Timorese news the next night, including my speech which I attempted in Tetum! The highlight of the day for the children though were the small packs we gave each of them (all 1,200 of them!) which contained an exercise book, pencils, soap, toothpaste, brush and a pack of biscuits (at a cost of $2 per pack). When we left not one of the children had even opened their packs – for many of them it would be the first present they’ve received.
More trip highlights to follow!
           
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project: Lospalos East Timor
16 August 2012
4 Days until Lospalos School Opening
The work is all done at Lospalos school – on both the new building and the old buildings which we refurbished. Now it’s time for the official opening and a celebration. Kirsty Sword Gusmao will be at the opening and we are hoping that the country’s new President, Taur Matan Ruak will be there as well. The school is a 6 hour bone shaking drive from Dili – so we’re preparing for a big drive to Lospalos on Monday, with the opening ceremony next Tuesday morning. Should be fabulous!
project: Lospalos East Timor
01 August 2012
Can’t ignore state of old classrooms at Lospalos
While our plan was just to build an additional 3 classroom building at Lospalos, we haven’t been able to ignore the state of the two existing classrooms at the school. As the windows had rotted and fallen out, the windows had all been boarded up to keep out the rain during the wet season. This meant that there was no light or ventilation for the students inside. Our builder is now repairing the windows, putting in mesh and repainting them both to restore them to a good state.
project: Lospalos East Timor
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